Poster play in Allahabad ahead of BJP national meet

Loyalists send out message to party top brass about their choice for UP’s next CM from the party; Varun, Rajnath and Smriti top the list

Allahabad: Though BJP top brass has maintained silence over whether to project a chief ministerial face for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls or not, supporters of regional leaders have taken to posters and hoardings to send out a message about their preferences, as the party’s national executive meet began here yesterday.

BJP national president Amit Shah inaugurates the BJP national meet in Allahabad yesterday. Pic/PTI

Among all state leaders, it is the face of party MP Varun Gandhi which dons most posters and hoardings put up along the roads leading to the meeting venue, while posters of Union Minister Smriti Irani, who is seen as one of the party’s options for the post, are present at relatively fewer places.

Photographs of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, its most prominent state leader, also find their place across the city, at some places alongside that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah.

Commenting on the issue, BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said, "All I can say is certainly this is not any kind of projection that the party is making in the national executive and hoardings and posters are not parameters of popularity."

Joshi brushed aside?

Once dubbed as one of the three pillars of the BJP, Murli Manohar Joshi failed to feature on the party's leadership spectrum at the national meet.

Murli Manohar Joshi

Sources said Joshi, who represented Allahabad thrice as an MP, has been here for two days, but no one from the party has paid him any attention.